The World Wide Web (“Web”) is the Internet's multimedia information retrieval system. It is the most commonly used method of transferring data in the Internet environment. Client processing device accomplish transactions to Web servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”), which is a known application protocol providing users access to files, e.g., text, graphics, images, sound, video, using a standard page description language known as the Hypertext Markup Language (“HTML”). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify “links” to other servers and files. In the Internet paradigm, a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) having a specific syntax identifies a network path to a server for defining a network connection. Embedded hypertext links on a given Web page can be used to find information related to the given Web page. By clicking on a hypertext link in one Web page, the user can display another related Web page or even invoke a related program.
Retrieval of information is generally achieved by the use of an HTML-compatible “browser”, e.g., Netscape Navigator, at a client processing device. When the user of the browser specifies a link via a URL, the client issues a request to a naming service to map a hostname in the URL to a particular network IP address at which the server is located. The naming service returns a list of one or more IP addresses that can respond to the request. Using one of the IP addresses, the browser establishes a connection to a server. If the server is available, it returns a document or other object formatted according to HTML. Web browsers have become the primary interface for access to many network and server services.
Graphical user interfaces that provide multiple views of related information (such as frames, panes, or windows) are becoming increasingly prevalent in commercially available products. Netscape Navigator's default behavior is to follow a link by replacing the current browser context. The Web page author can change this default behavior on a link-by-link basis. For example, HTML-based frames can be created and targeted programmatically by writing HTML or Javascript code.
An example involves browsing the set of results returned by a search engine. Users typically want to explore several promising sites listed in the page of search results. The typical interaction is to follow a link, look at the page, and then hit the back button to redisplay the search results. The user often wants to use the page of search results as a persistent launcher that opens the links in another specified view. In fact, this approach is so compelling that it is often hard coded into sites that use multiple frames.
Many Web servers have been developed through which merchants can advertise and sell products. The products can include items (e.g., music) that are delivered electronically to the purchaser over the Internet and items (e.g., books) that are delivered through conventional distribution channels (e.g., a common carrier). This usually consists of product information in catalog form stored in a computer memory, or server, assigned to the merchant. This set of information is referred to as the merchant's Web site, and may also include instructions on how the customer may order products from the merchant either through the Web access or by other means. A user, who is a potential purchaser, may browse through the catalog using a browser and select various products that are to be purchased. When the user has completed selecting the products to be purchased, the merchant server then prompts the user for information to complete the ordering of the products. This purchaser-specific order information may include the purchaser's name, the purchaser's credit card number, and a shipping address for the order. The server computer system then typically confirms the order by sending a confirming Web page to the client computer system and schedules shipment of the items. U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,411 issued to Hartman, et al. describes a system for placing an order to purchase an item via the Internet using an assigned client-specific identifier.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,141 to Bezos et al., describes an Internet-based referral system that enables individuals and other business entities (“associates”) to market products that are sold from a merchant's Web site. This system requires the associate to set up a Web site to distribute hypertextual catalog documents that includes marketing information about selected products of the merchant. A hypertextual “referral link” is associated with each product that allows a user (“customer”) to link to the merchant's site and purchase the product. When a customer selects a referral link, the customer's computer transmits unique IDs of the selected product and of the associate to the merchant's site, allowing the merchant to identify the product and the referring associate.
While this system allows marketing of a small number of associates—merchant relationships, the process of having each merchant set up a dedicated Web site for every associate it (the merchant) wishes to market its product through can be very time-consuming for the merchant. In addition, associates are burdened with having to deal with different, and often unknown, ways different merchants may have chosen to implement their individual Web site. This may cause the associate to maintain separate adapter systems for each merchant it decides to promote.